Tag Archives: writing soundtracks

Listening to 2000’s era Cure, Pt 4: the Deluxe Editions I

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After the promotion of The Cure and the Curiosa Festival had come and gone, the next phase was about to begin: a massive reissue of their early catalog. While this may not have been all that important in the UK where they’d stayed on the Fiction label for years, in the US they’d appeared on several: the indie PVC, A&M, Sire, and eventually an extended stay (complete with minor reissues) on Elektra. This would finally bring the majority of their discography together on one label, with its original packaging.

The new reissues of their back catalog began of course with their debut album Three Imaginary Boys in late 2004. Most Americans knew most of its tracks from the US collection Boys Don’t Cry or via the import. [I’d bought the original version at Al Bum’s in Amherst probably in early 1987 and much preferred this one. It flows much better and the band’s early gloom is much more prevalent here.

The bonus disc of this reissue would of course include the singles “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”, both post-album stand-alone singles, though surprisingly it did not contain their debut single “Killing an Arab”, though that was most likely due to its questionable source material. Still, it did contain several demos and outtakes that are quite fascinating to hear.

The next three album reissues would appear all on the same day: Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography, in late spring 2005. The first two had been released at different times in the US, including as a double-disc two-fer called Happily Ever After, which I owned on cassette.

Seventeen Seconds expanded on their post-punk sound and added a pastoral feel to their sound, thanks to the melodic bass lines of new members Simon Gallup and the keyboards of Matthieu Hartley. This album definitely feels like something you’d listen to alone, on headphones, sometime around 2am. It was a huge inspiration to my writing in the late 80s and got a ton of play late at night. The extra tracks on this reissue are more focused on live recordings, some of which would show up on the cassette version of the live album Concert.

Faith, on the other hand, was a much darker affair. It too is perfect late night listening, but it leans more towards isolation and loneliness. There are two faces here: the anger and tension of songs like “Primary” and “Doubt”, and the atmospheric fog of “All Cats Are Grey” and the title track. The original cassette had included the twenty-seven minute (!!) instrumental track “Carnage Visors”, which they’d recorded for an animated film that would play before their live shows. This epic is included on this reissue, along with several studio outtakes and live tracks, as well as the non-album single “Charlotte Sometimes”.

Pornography, on the other hand…is not an easy album to listen to. Hartley had left, leaving the band as a barebones trio that only added to the album’s sparseness. They took several steps further down into the bitterly cold abyss, well past the darkness of Faith. Depression, desolation and entropy abound on this record. Is it any wonder that this was in super heavy rotation on my Walkman in the late 80s, then? While it’s not as violently dismal as, say, The Downward Spiral, it could probably be seen as its goth equivalent. Interestingly enough, its closing title track (like “Hurt”, come to think of it) hints at a sense of strained hope. This too features a lot of studio demos and live tracks.

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Are these reissues that you must have in your collection? Well, if you’re a huge fan like I am, then yes, definitely. The remastered tracks sound great, and the extras are all sorts of fun to listen to. For completists they are missing a few things here and there, such as a few single-only b-sides (which, to be fair, were easily available on the Join the Dots box set), but it’s worth checking out.

Coming Up Next: the final three reissues of the decade

Listening to 2000’s era Cure, Pt 2: Hits, Dots, and One-Offs

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While Bloodflowers was a great album, it wasn’t my favorite of their latter years. I think part of it was that it came out at a time when my time at the record store was coming to a close, but it was also that it simply just didn’t resonate with me as deeply as some past albums had. Still, this sparked off a slow but steady stream of increased visibility. They were constantly on tour at the start of the decade, and followed it up with a number of collections and appearances.

The band released the Greatest Hits collection in late 2001 as a contractual obligation to the Fiction label. It features many of their best known tracks, chosen by Robert Smith himself, and also two new tracks: the poppy “Cut Here” (the title an anagram of the band name) and the perky “Just Say Yes” featuring Saffron from Republica. It’s by no means a must-have collection, but it’s a good place to start, and also a good mix for those not interested in a discography deep dive. The expanded version features a second album’s worth of the same songs, this time recorded acoustically.

Smith kept himself busy by appearing on a few albums, many of which are definitely worth checking out. He provided vocals on the great track “Perfect Blue Sky” on Junkie XL’s Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin — an expansive two-cd collection of upbeat radio-friendly electronic tracks and expanded house instrumentals. This album is one of my favorites of 2003 and also features vocals from Saffron, Dave Gahan, Gary Numan, Chuck D, Terry Hall, and more. It also features the groovy reimagining of Elvis’ “A Little Less Conversation” which had showed up in 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven. It’s a record worth picking up.

Also in 2003, he featured on…a Blink-182 album?? Sure, why not? The punk pop trio called The Cure one of their influences, and he features on the track “All of This”.

Then in spring of 2004, he featured on the second album by tweaker, drummer Chris Vrenna’s collective project. The album 2am wakeup call is about Vrenna’s wife’s insomnia so much of the record is dark and moody…but not necessarily gloomy. I listened to this album incessantly for most of that year, not just in the Belfry during my writing sessions (I was writing The Balance of Light at the time) but during my commutes to work. I highly recommend checking this record out.

Backing up a few months, The Cure also released the box set Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978-2001. It’s a four-disc collection that proves that these oddities weren’t just throwaways or one-offs. Their b-sides, like “Just One Kiss”, “Breathe” and “The Big Hand”, could be just as amazing and memorable as their album tracks and singles, and even their soundtrack and compilation offerings like “Burn” (from The Crow soundtrack) and the cover of Depeche Mode’s “World in My Eyes” (from For the Masses) are great. It’s worth checking these out.

But wait! There’s one more thing! One that often gets overlooked!

They also did the theme song for the French animated series Dragon Hunters by taking their track “Taking Off” (which would show up soon on their next record) and repurposing it into this fun and boppy theme. This one doesn’t show up on any greatest hits, reissues or box sets (at least not yet anyway), but it’s easy to find online.

Coming up: finally, another new album!

Twenty-five years ago…

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I’ve been going through some music from 1999 the last couple of days and finding a bunch of albums and songs I used to listen to quite a bit then that I haven’t listened to in ages, and some I’ve even completely forgotten about. This was during the back half of my tenure at HMV, and by this time I’d been tasked with ordering the imports and, if I could get away with it, some of the obscure indie titles that I figured someone aside from me might like. A lot of these got considerable play down in the Belfry during my writing sessions.

Medal, Drop Your Weapon, 24 May 1999. This Oxford quintet’s music had that sort of epic moodiness that was at odds with a lot of what was big at the time, but their sound was perfect for my writing sessions, especially the slow groove of “Possibility”. Well worth checking out if you can find it.

Arab Strap, Cherubs EP, 1 September 1999. I kind of liked the lead track off this, but it was the slow and sludgy “Pulled” that drew my interest. Sure, it’s seven-plus minutes long and takes its own sweet time getting somewhere (and even then the tempo subtly shifts all over the place), but it’s the two-minute wall of noise coda that makes the entire song. Considering that I’m a huge fan of the quiet/LOUD style, this fit perfectly in my wheelhouse.

Days of the New, Days of the New II, 31 August 1999. Remember this guy, Travis Meeks? Promising musician with a growly semi-acoustic grunge sound? They had a minor hit with “Touch Peel and Stand” from the first album but the second record kind of got passed over. Thing is, this second record was absolutely amazing. Really tight musicianship and songwriting, and definitely more adventurous. Sadly his group imploded (apparently his backing band quit in frustration and started their own group, Tantric, who had a few minor hits in the early 00s. I listened to this one a hell of a lot that summer.

Tin Star, The Thrill Kisser, 9 February 1999. How the heck did I latch onto this…? I think the BMG rep handed a promo to me and thought I’d like it, and yes, like it I did! Not quite electronica, not quite indie, but a hybrid of both with a heaping dollop of British eccentricity added into the mix, it’s cool, funky, and a really great record. This got a ton of play in the Belfry for a good couple of years.

Kill Holiday, Somewhere Between the Wrong Is Right, 23 February 1999. I’d heard “In Closing (Memorial Day)” on The River one night driving home from work and immediately ordered the album on my following shift! Y’all know how much I do love an epic final track with a slow build (and again with the quiet/LOUD thing). One of my favorite indie releases of that year.

Trashmonk, Mona Lisa Overdrive, 25 March 1999. Ever wonder what Nick Laird-Clowes did after The Dream Academy? Well, he dropped this one really weird album named after a William Gibson book that sounded nothing like his former band. Sometimes experimental, sometimes groovy, sometimes hauntingly beautiful, it’s definitely worth checking out if you can find it.

Lamb, Fear of Fours, 17 May 1999. More experimental and much darker than their debut (and nearly all the songs contain quirky time signatures outside of 4/4), it’s the one that captured my attention to the point that they became one of my favorite bands of the late 90s/early 00s.

Rico, Sanctuary Medicines, 16 August 1999. This Glaswegian industrial musician could probably be compared to Nine Inch Nails but without the dire levels of nihilism. I don’t even remember how I came across this one aside from the fact that I really dug the whole industrial metal sound and that it wasn’t trying so damn hard to fit into the goth stereotypes like some other bands.

Handsome Boy Modeling School, So…How’s Your Girl?, 19 October 1999. Only Prince Paul and Dan the Automator could get away with naming their band after an episode-long joke from Chris Elliott’s bonkers TV show Get a Life…and loosely basing AN ENTIRE ALBUM on said episode. But it’s a damn fine record and one of the best of the year on many critics’ lists. It’s a super fun record worth owning.

The All Seeing I, Pickled Eggs & Sherbet, 20 September 1999. Another ‘where the heck did I hear about this’ import and the only album from this electronica collective, though this sounds more like a quirky British indie band instead if you didn’t know their background. It’s extremely eccentric and I have no idea what they were trying to prove with it, but it’s a fascinating listen.

Two new mixtapes!

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Unlike last year, where I was just too preoccupied with Real Life and other things and hadn’t allowed myself to really get to know the new music I was acquiring, I’m making a concerted effort to pay attention to what’s coming out these days, and I’m quite happy to say that I’m finding a lot of really good stuff out there!

These two mixtapes were basically holdovers from late 2023 where I’d started a list of songs but hadn’t gotten around to completing it and arranging the tracklist flow. I’m quite happy with how they came out, however, and I hope you enjoy them as well!

From the Open Skies: In My Blue World 2, created 14 January 2024. No, I have not written the sequel to In My Blue World just yet! I only have a very rough two-page outline of an idea, but I think it’s worth working on as a future project later on in the year! All I’ll say that it involves our heroes facing off a new foe with a much stronger and creepier ability to siphon magic for their own nefarious uses! And what better way to prep for a future novel project than creating a mixtape soundtrack for it? [Note: for those of you playing along, the title here is borrowed from another ELO song, heh.]

Walk in Silence XXVIII, created 30 January 2024. First of all, I can’t believe I’m already up to twenty-eight volumes of this series!! (Then again, I’ve been making them since 1988, so…) This, Listen in Silence and Untitled have pretty much become my own NOW That’s What I Call… compilations that just won’t quit. This one came out surprisingly well and I’m finding myself returning to it more and more.

The Songs that Inspired the Novels

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While going through some of my mp3s the other day I was thinking about the music that inspired some of the novels I’d written. They weren’t completely inspired by just one song of course, but there was that one track that was pretty much the stepping stone that got the project started in earnest. It got me thinking about some of my other projects and how they got their (musical) start.

The Phoenix Effect / The Bridgetown Trilogy. Poe’s ‘band version’ of her single “Hello” dropped probably a couple of weeks before I started writing The Phoenix Effect in March 1997. I’d had a vague idea of the story I wanted to write for at least a few months, but it was this song that made me realize I was ready to do it. The song itself is very Johnny Mnemonic in its theme — and I had a soft spot for that enjoyable but extremely flawed film — and I realized that movie had a similar mood I was aiming for with this new project. Darker, edgier, angrier. Those weren’t words you’d use to describe my previous writing, to be honest, but I was willing to give it a go. This single got my creative blood pumping enough that it ended up as the first track on the first Songs from the Eden Cycle mixtape.

Two Thousand. This trunked novel was to be my Gen-X ‘becoming an adult without a direction’ story that never quite panned out, based on several related ideas: a close circle of friends regularly meeting up at a bench in Back Bay; a trio of musicians starting a local indie band; the frustrations of following your dreams versus going into the workplace and which obviously paid the rent. The Wolfgang Press’ cover of Three Dog Night’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come” was on their brilliant album Queer, which got played incessantly in The Shoebox apartment while I worked on this. I felt it was the perfect theme song for the project.

Can’t Find My Way Home. I’d come up with the idea for this time travel idea during my time at HMV, when I’d first heard this phenomenal cover of the Blind Faith tune. That gorgeous intro played by Johnny Marr screamed ‘opening theme song’ in my head. It took a few years for me to come up with a story behind it, and it’s gone through various versions and has been trunked multiple times. I’ve recently had a few ideas on a new approach to the story, however, so perhaps this may surface one last time…

Love Like Blood. My trunked vampire novel (it’s there for a good reason in that it’s terrible despite a lot of really good ideas) had been started back in 2004 when I’d been frustrated by my inability to finish The Balance of Light, and I’d been reading a few vampire novels at the time, so I figured, why the hell not? Let’s give it a try, something to focus on so I can at least keep working? This Killing Joke song wasn’t just the opening theme of the novel (the first chapter has a band playing it live at the Paradise in Boston) but it was to set the mood with its ridiculous take on goth tropes. [I haven’t read it in years, so now I’m curious to see how bad it is and if it’s salvageable. I’m in no rush, however.]

Meet the Lidwells! I’ve mentioned before that a lot of MtL borrows from ideas that I’d used in Two Thousand (hey, I wasn’t going to be using them, so…). One of the biggest moments I’d planned in TT was a pivotal ‘make or break’ scene for the lead character and his band, in which they did a blistering cover of this final track off The La’s self-titled album. Years later when I started MtL, I knew that I’d be using that same idea for a pivotal scene, this time pinpointing The Lidwells’ highest career moment they’d ever achieved. It’s the scene near the end of the novel where Thomas Lidwell describes the band performing a live version of their song “Listening” that becomes his all-time favorite moment in the band’s career.

In My Blue World. This one’s a bit obvious, but yes, it was indeed this song that came to mind when I first started writing the novel. At the time I’d just been on an ELO kick and was playing several of their albums when I was planning out the novel itself, but once I started it, I knew this was going to be the opening theme song. For those playing along, in my head there’s a crossfade right at the end of the first scene where Zuze appears for the first time, and the theme song fades in with the movie credits!

Theadia. My space opera was kicked off by this Fuzzbox deep cut off of their second album Big Bang!, one of my favorites despite its 80s pop cheesiness. I just knew that the story was going to revolve around our two nerdy heroes who are trying to save the universe but would really rather be hanging out with close friends and having a good time. I wanted this novel to not be hard sf or steeped in Doctorow levels of tech geekdom. This was the album — and the song — that I put on when I started writing the novel in the last few days of my stay at the former day job at the bank, to remind me that despite how desperate things might become in the story, these two will always find time to be true to themselves. I’m really looking forward to getting this one out as well!

Queen Ophelia’s War. I’d said before that I wrote this novel with the plan of Dialing It Back, just like I had with Diwa & Kaffi. It has its moments of tension and conflict, sure, but I wanted to write something that could also be seen as pastoral as well. And to do that I realized that I also wanted a mixtape that would be similar in feel to what it felt like when I used to listen to Cocteau Twins when I was a teenager. The mood of both the novel and the mixtape then was about the wonders of the unknown and the willingness to get lost in them for a while. Thus putting “Blue Bell Knoll” as the first track on its mixtape!

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XXXI

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The Great Transcription Project was coming along quite nicely, because part of it was to get me used to sitting down in front of that computer and getting something done. That was the important part. Some days I’d do my older poetry, some days I’d do parts of the IWN or Belief in Fate or one of my other ancient projects that never got all that far. And this would inspire me to sit down and actually work on writing True Faith, even if it was a few paragraphs or a short scene.

Then I heard about the state film bureau’s screenplay contest! I’d known about this in the past via one of my siblings, but I figured, why the hell not? If anything would help me invest a considerable amount of time in this writing career I wanted, this would. And it would also give me a strict deadline: I had to get it done before July 31st. Which meant that I had exactly one month to write an entire screenplay. It just so happened that in all my juvenilia I was transcribing, I did in fact have one finished that I could revive and revise! It was One Step Closer to You, a John Hughes-esque enemies-to-lovers romp I’d written in 1987 right after finishing the IWN. And considering that I’d just gotten a college degree in this sort of thing, I dove in and worked on it every moment I wasn’t at the day job. And I got it done under deadline with three days to go! I spent that last weekend at my sister’s house, printed it out, and mailed it in that weekend.

Mind you, the end result isn’t exactly perfect and it definitely did not win any prizes, but it did prove a few things: a) I can definitely work under pressure with a deadline if I put my mind to it, b) I can definitely write every single day because it was something I love doing, and c) this proved that it wasn’t that I was a terrible student, it really was that unless I could hyperfocus on something I truly enjoyed, my patience and interest would wane considerably. [And as a side note, one of the revised scenes in the story had the main male character working at a local radio station, which I’d based on my time at WCAT…which I’d be returning to soon enough, though I obviously didn’t know that at the time.]

Yeah, this writing racket was definitely something I could see myself doing long term…

Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters, released 4 July 1995. When it was announced that the former Nirvana drummer was starting a band, most people weren’t expecting to hear wonderfully crafted and ridiculously catchy tunes that had only a distant passing similarity to the former group. Dave Grohl’s first record hit all the right buttons for several people and he’s been nailing it ever since.

Shaggy, Boombastic, released 11 July 1995. Proving that he wasn’t just a one hit wonder with “Oh Carolina”, he returned with one of his most popular songs that still gets play to this day. [Side note: when A and I went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe in London, Puck happened to burst into this song, causing Oberon to burst into laughter. It was a perfectly hilarious moment.]

Buffalo Tom, Sleepy Eyed, released 11 July 1995. The beloved Boston band returned with yet another great album. While it wasn’t as huge as Let Me Come Over or Red Letter Day (partly because they wanted to return to their more stripped-down roots), it’s nonetheless a fun album, and singles “Summer” and “Tangerine” were both radio favorites.

Ramones, ¡Adios Amigos!, released 18 July 1995. The kings of American punk — the band that inspired several UK punk bands — came to an end with this final album, and it was a hell of a great way to go as it’s one of their strongest later albums. They went on one final tour after this and I’m glad to say I was able to see them for it at Avalon in Boston. [And yes, every single song they performed started with the classic Ramone ‘1-2-3-4’ count-in.]

311, 311, released 25 July 1995. After two excellent albums that just couldn’t break through to the charts or even significant radio play, this third album smashed all expectations by being their best yet, with several songs getting major play on radio and on MTV. It’s still one of their biggest sellers, and it’s worth checking out.

The Presidents of the United States of America, The Presidents of the United States of America, released 25 July 1995. Meanwhile, these goofballs (who, by the way, opened up for Ramones on that show I just mentioned!) instantly reminded me of the Boston band Morphine: a trio of a drummer and two guys who played unconventional guitars. Only these three had their tongue firmly in cheek singing about Lumps, Peaches, Kitties, and Dune Buggies (and a nutty cover of the MC5 to top it off!) and giving themselves the most improbable name in alternative rock. It’s a bonkers debut full of silly humor and insanely catchy earworms. Definitely worth a listen.

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Up next: when all good (and not so good) things come to an end

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XXX

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The summer movie season begins at the Somerville Sony Theatre, which means a constantly packed building, which means a mountain of dropped popcorn and forgotten drink cups to clean up quickly after each show. [Hint: Use an electric leaf blower at the back row and it all tumbles down to the front, making it quicker and easier to sweep and toss.] It also means me staying after shift several nights a week to watch all the exciting new films dropping, sometimes multiple viewings. Because why the hell not? D was back home and I had nothing better to do.

I did a lot of walking that summer as well. There were a few evenings where I’d missed the last Orange Line T into town and would have to walk back to Allston. That was intriguing in itself, because I’d never been a long distance walker before, and my apartment was about three miles away. I did it, though, and multiple times.

But what I did most that time was start the Great Transcription Project. I’ve mentioned this many times before, and this was where it all began for me as a writer using a PC. I’d always written longhand in the past, and having uninterrupted use of one for an entire summer was an enticement I could not pass up. But where to start…? I decided that perhaps I should start from the beginning? Or a beginning, at any rate. I’d transcribed my poems and lyrics a few years earlier on typewriter, but this was where I went one further and started transcribing my juvenilia: the Infamous War Novel, Belief in Fate, the several abandoned ideas, and what the hell, a cleaner version of the poems again! I had a ton of time when I wasn’t at work, so I got some 3″ floppies from my sister and set about working. [And yes, even then I had a PC distraction: I taught myself how to properly play solitaire, and played several hands before, during and after writing sessions.]

I also played around with Bridgetown a bit more. Even though True Faith took place in a different city named NewCanta (which is mentioned in passing several times in the Bridgetown Trilogy), I knew I wanted to return to this other city as well. Whether it would be in this novel or elsewhere was unknown at this point. One summer afternoon I expanded on a map of the city I’d drawn back in the Shoebox for Vigil, and I’d often refer to that one while writing outtakes and ideas.

Mixtape, Untitled VI, created June 1995. This by far is one of my favorite mixtapes I’d made during the Boston Years, and it got a hell of a lot of play on my Walkman. It’s mostly a mix of recent songs in my collection and stuff taped off the radio, and all of them songs I knew would fit perfectly on a summer mix. I also love the fact that each side ends with bizarre short songs. [When I first got a CDW drive for my own PC during the Belfry years, this was the first mix I remade onto CD, adding several extra tracks from the same era.]

U2, “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” single, released 5 June 1995. I remember hearing this for the first time on WBCN, as the band was close friends with the DJ Carter Alan who’d championed them way back in the early 80s, and had given him the track as a world premiere. It’s a fascinating and wild track that contains the noisy style of Achtung Baby but with a more experimental sound, something they’d expand on a short while later on their Passengers side project.

Soundtrack, Batman Forever, released 6 June 1995. The U2 song was of course from this soundtrack…which also contained what would become Seal’s biggest ever hit, “Kiss from a Rose”. I have to admit this was my favorite of the 90s Batman movies because it chose not to take itself seriously at all, yet avoids the corniness of the 60s show. I must have seen this movie at least four or five times that summer.

Catherine Wheel, Happy Days, released 6 June 1995. This band’s third album may not have hit the heights that Ferment and Chrome did with their classic singles, but it’s mostly because they’d moved away from the trippy dreampop of those albums and focused more on harder alt-rock. The single “Waydown” is wild and weird, but it’s the lovely “Judy Staring at the Sun” which features Tanya Donelly that got them major radio play.

Soul Asylum, Let Your Dim Light Shine, released 6 June 1995. While not as popular as Grave Dancers Union from a few years previous, this did contain the single “Misery” which got quite a lot of play that summer. This was a band that was heading the same direction as Goo Goo Dolls, becoming less punk and more AOR.

Jennifer Trynin, Cockamamie, released 13 June 1995. A local guitarist and a burgeoning desktop publisher, she had a minor hit with the quirky and fun “Better Than Nothing” on WFNX and WBCN. She had a very short but interesting solo career but has popped up over the years as a session musician. Well worth checking out.

Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill, released 13 June 1995. I remember hearing “You Oughta Know” on WFNX while taking the T home one afternoon and thinking damn, this is the kind of pissed off attitude that’s missing in alternative rock these days. [I mean, it was there, it was just that it had become solely owned by the alt-metal bands starting to come out.] I signed onto this one pretty quickly and constantly listened to this album that summer.

Jill Sobule, Jill Sobule, released 13 June 1995. I was already familiar with her music by this time, having seen her opening up for Joe Jackson back in 1991 for her Things Here Are Different album, but this was the breakthrough she had with the classic and funny “I Kissed a Girl”.

Bjork, Post, released 13 June 1995. I was a bit late in buying this one, getting it from Columbia House a few months later, but I loved it once I had it. It’s probably my favorite of her solo records, not quite as quirky as Debut and not as weird as her later work. “Hyperballad” has also become my favorite of her songs.

The Verve, A Northern Soul, released 20 June 1995. A few years before their ubiquitous single “Bittersweet Symphony”, this was a minor hit on alternative radio, showcasing their more swirly Stones-y Britpop sound. “This Is Music” got a bit of play here and there at the time.

Ben Lee, Grandpaw Would, released 22 June 1995. So how do you react to a sixteen year old who writes damn catchy indie pop…for a solo career after breaking up his previous band? Aside from oh god I’m old, I mean, heh. “Pop Queen” got a bit of minor play.

The Chemical Brothers, Exit Planet Dust, released 26 June 1995. This duo’s first album was so groundbreaking it blew away so many other electronic bands at the time. It’s a perfect blend of blissed-out rave, creative sampling, and surprisingly catchy melodies. Like Fatboy Slim soon after, this was a band made for the dance floor that also work just fine coming out of your speakers at home. Highly recommended.

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Next up: A strict deadline, just to see if I can do it. [Spoilers: I do! With time to spare!]

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XXIX

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May was the month of Best Laid Plans, I suppose. With D moving back home for the summer, we agreed that it would be a great idea if I held onto her PC until she came back in autumn. That would give me the impetus to work on True Faith when I had time off from work. That wouldn’t happen until the end of the month, however. In the meantime, I’d moved my pallet bed from the window across the room and put my desk up next to it, just like I had in college, and made it a point to work there as much as possible. I think it was also about this time that Z had started making plans to move out at the end of the summer to San Francisco. This meant that I would either need to find a new roommate or make alternate plans once again, and it wasn’t something I wanted to think of right now.

In the meantime, life went on at the theater and at home. I’d started a collection of movie posters that I’d snag after the run was over and put up on my own wall. I also decided that maybe I should thin out my music collection a bit and see if I can get some extra money from it. Alas, that went about how you’d expect — far less cash than I’d hoped — but every little bit helped.

But damn it all, I did not want to move back home. I wanted to stay in Boston. I needed to stay in Boston, one way or another.

The Apples in Stereo, Fun Trick Noisemaker, released 2 May 1995. I think it was about this time I’d heard about the Elephant 6 Recording Company — a lose collective of several bands including this one with a love for 60 bubblegum pop — and they’d amassed a cult following with this album and others.

Soundtrack, Rob Roy, released 2 May 1995. One of many movies out this year focused on British history (real and otherwise) that were all quite enjoyable. I really liked the soundtrack for this one and would eventually get it on cassette.

Tracy Bonham, The Liverpool Sessions EP, released 7 May 1995. An Oregonian taking up residence in the Boston area thanks to Brett Milano from The Boston Phoenix, she had a sizeable following in the area and WFNX had her on constant rotation with “Dandelion” and an early version of “The One”. This EP would help her get signed to a major the following year.

Filter, Short Bus, released 8 May 1995. a Nine Inch Nails-adjacent band (singer-guitarist Richard Patrick was NIN’s touring guitarist for a few years), they may not have been as desperately dark as them but they certainly were just as loud and aggressive. The single “Hey Man, Nice Shot” was a huge hit despite its creepy inspiration, and continued to have a measure of success for years afterwards.

Supergrass, I Should Coco, released 15 May 1995. On a much lighter note, we had these three goofballs recording irresistibly fun and very British pop and had a major hit with their single “Alright”, which still gets a lot of play to this day. It’s a super fun album, and the rest of their discography is just as amazing.

Pulp, “Common People” single, released 22 May 1995. A teaser single for this band’s upcoming album, it became their most famous song and in my opinion one of the best “fuck rich people” songs ever written. The band has created a brilliant song with a super catchy and upbeat sound counterpointing Jarvis Cocker’s snide lyrics. One of the best songs of the 90s.

Soundtrack, Braveheart, released 23 May 1995. Another movie steeped in British history (real and otherwise), it gave Mel Gibson a much needed career boost, even if the story played fast and loose with actual facts. The soundtrack was highly acclaimed and still gets the occasional play on classical stations!

Low, Long Division, released 23 May 1995. One of their best early albums, although it took me a few years to catch up to that fact! This may not have gotten all that much airplay on stations like WFNX, but the college stations loved it.

Moonpools and Caterpillars, Lucky Dumpling, released 23 May 1995. I always got the song “Hear” mixed up with Letters to Cleo, and perhaps that’s why this band didn’t quite get the levels of success that LtC did, but it’s a fun album full of bubblegummy alternapop worth checking out.

Everclear, Sparkle and Fade, released 23 May 1995. This breakthrough for the band, their first on a major label, contained some of their best and well known songs like “Santa Monica” (which still gets radio play these days). Art Alexakis’ ‘therapy on public display’ lyric style might be a bit much for some, but it’s a great album despite that.

Soundtrack, Johnny Mnemonic, released 26 May 1995. Believe it or not, this movie was a huge influence on my writing True Faith. Sort of based on a William Gibson short story, directed by visual artist Robert Longo and cast with several unexpected names like Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Ice-T, Henry Rollins and Takeshi Kitano, it’s a glorious mess but it’s also a hell of a lot of fun and is surprisingly creative in its own way. It’s a really great soundtrack as well.

God Lives Underwater, God Lives Underwater EP, released 31 May 1995. This band’s single “No More Love” played at the end credits of the above movie, which definitely helped get their name out there. This band was a fascinating industrial/synth/alt-metal band that sounded more like KMFDM than Ministry and while they were only around for a few years, their discography is full of great and impressively creative sounds.

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Next up: In which the Great Transcription Project begins, and Bridgetown gets a major upgrade.

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XXVII

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Life continued apace at the Brighton Ave apartment, though I’m pretty sure the connection between Z and I would get strained at times. Between him practicing his keyboard at all hours of the night (he was also an extremely loud foot-tapper when he played, so there was also that thunk thunk thunk when he really got into the groove), and my barely making enough money to pay for a lot of the bills and the occasional actual food cooked in the apartment, we’d irritate each other quite often. Not enough for any loud arguments, because I’d do my usual hide-in-the-bedroom when things got stressful.

I mean, at the time I’d like to think I wasn’t feeling depressed or desperate like I had at the Shoebox apartment, and I was in a slightly better mood with a steady job and a girlfriend, but to be honest things could have been a lot better. I knew they could, I was just too damn broke and in debt to achieve it.

Which is pretty much why around this time I started hyperfocusing on my writing. Not on the daily just yet, but getting there. The first thing I had to do was remain focused on whatever project I was working on instead of sliding all over the place at whim.

Plus, March provided me with one hell of a great soundtrack.

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Annie Lennox, Medusa, released 6 March 1995. Annie’s second solo album is one of covers, and this too ended up a big hit for her, especially with the lovely version of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” which also ended up playing during the closing credits of the Sandra Bullock film The Net — one of many computer-themed movies that would come out that summer, many of which would partly inspire the AI subplot of True Faith.

Radiohead, The Bends, released 13 March 1995. The last thing this band wanted to do was record another “Creep” so they headed in an all new direction with this stellar record that really is worth all the accolades it’s received over the years. It’s full of tension, irritation, delicacy and tenderness, an album with equal parts anger and love. Highly recommended. I got this one via Columbia House at some point and played the hell out of it for several years afterwards, it becoming a major mainstay in the Belfry writing sessions.

Matthew Sweet, 100% Fun, released 14 March 1995. After the dense and odd Altered Beast, Sweet returned with a sunshiney pop album that’s full of fun and addictive melodies. “Sick of Myself” was the big radio hit at the time.

Goo Goo Dolls, A Boy Named Goo, released 14 March 1995. A few years before their major breakthrough “Iris”, this album gave them the ability to open that door and head on through. It’s a great album that carries a hint of their former punkish roots but also hints at the stellar songwriting they’d be known for in the future.

Mad Season, Above, released 14 March 1995. A sort-of supergroup with Layne Staley from Alice in Chains and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam, their one album could have been a by the numbers PNW grunge album but instead they took the tenderest and most introspective parts of their own bands and created a lovely record worth owning. Highly recommended.

Collective Soul, Collective Soul, released 14 March 1995. Hardly anyone expected this band’s second album to hit the heights that it did, considering their first album was good but not entirely memorable. This album, on the other hand, just kept on kicking out one hit single after the next, with “December”, “Gel”, “Smashing Young Man”, “Where the River Flows” and “The World I Know”. This too would end up getting major Belfry writing session play in the early years. It’s well worth checking out.

Moby, Everything Is Wrong, released 14 March 1995. Moby had been known in the electronic genre a bit of an oddball who made shockingly lush music that could easily be used as movie scores, and this was the record that captured many people’s attention.

Garbage, “Vow” single, released 20 March 1995. I of course knew who Butch Vig was due to his several high-status album productions like Nevermind, and I’d expected his own band to be just as great, and I was not let down. This single introduced many people to their unique sound — not quite grunge, not quite commercial alternative, but just as heavy and hella sexy.

Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, brainbloodvolume, released 21 March 1995. This band’s final album is often overlooked and forgotten as their previous album Are You Normal hadn’t done all that well either, but this became one of my favorite albums of that summer when I’d found a promo copy on cassette. It’s an album worth listening to at top volume, as it’s absolutely overflowing with energy and spirit. Every time I heard “All I Ask of Myself Is That I Hold Together” on WFNX I’d crank it up. Well worth a listen.

Our Lady Peace, Naveed, released 21 March 1995. This band, like fellow Canadians Moist, wouldn’t get that much attention around this time, but this one’s a great opening salvo for the group. Their own brand of alternative rock was twitchy yet introspective at the same time.

Joan Osborne, Relish, released 21 March 1995. Joan’s debut owes a lot to the Laurel Canyon folk and rock of the 70s, but she manages to update that sound into something fresh and fun, inserting an element of Bonnie Raitt-like blues into the mix. You’ll still hear “One of Us” on the radio, but the lovely “St. Theresa” and the sexy “Right Hand Man” is also worth checking out.

Morphine, Yes, released 21 March 1995. This band drops another album full of their unique sound of sparse and bassy blues rock, and it was a big hit on the Boston stations, especially with the single “Honey White”.

Elastica, Elastica, released 24 March 1995. Yes, I’m still annoyed all these years later that they shamelessly stole from Wire’s “Three Girl Rhumba” for their biggest hit. Primarily because “Connection” got so much airplay and the first several times I heard it my reaction was ‘wow, they’re playing an obscure Wire tra–oh, wait.” That said, this is a surprisingly catchy and fun album that actually was worth all the attention it got.

Silverchair, Frogstomp, released 27 March 1995. I believe this was first band that gave me the feeling that I’d waited far too long to start a music career, heh. For a teenage trio, this album is frighteningly intense and superbly crafted from start to finish. They of course ended up on my ‘will buy anything from them’ list.

Soundtrack, Tank Girl, released 28 March 1995. I was excited about this movie, considering I was quite aware of Jamie Hewlett’s bonkers comic book about a trigger-happy punk girl living in the outback and hanging with mutant kangaroos. It was ‘what if the apocalypse was bizarre and hilarious instead of all doom and gloom?’ Sadly the movie didn’t quite capture it, having been severely watered down to be palatable to the normies, but it was a lot of fun and I sat through it several times after work. The soundtrack is amazing, however, featuring fantastic tracks from Bjork, Bush, Portishead, Belly, and a goofy cover of “Let’s Do it (Let’s Fall in Love)” with Joan Jett and Paul Westerberg.

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Coming up: Coming to a close, making some decisions.

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XIX

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So what happened during the summer of 1994? That’s a good question. Not too much excitement, really. Living day to day, working at Brigham’s slinging scoops and making frappes, and working on True Faith. One thing that comes to mind is that I started reading again.

As much as I loved hanging out in bookstores, I would usually only get magazines and music reference books. I was just too involved in the visual, renting and watching movies because of my college years, not to mention my lack of patience and focus in actually sitting down and reading. D suggested I start reading Stephen King’s The Stand since we’d watched the miniseries by this time (she’d taped it for later viewing). Yeah, I know…going from being a non-reader to investing time in a Giant Doorstop, and the Complete and Uncut Edition at that? But it was a great idea because King can be a very visual writer in his worldbuilding and prose style, and that was the same style I was trying to create. The Stand was an unexpected yet vital influence on the Mendaihu Universe in that respect; I was fascinated by how vast the story universe was, and that inspired me to do the same. I spent the next year or so devouring several of his novels, finally realizing how much I did enjoy reading once I allowed myself to.

Meanwhile, D and I had realized we both enjoyed parody songs and came up with our own, focusing on parodying alternative rock under the name Mercy Buckets. We even had an album cover idea: on the walk to her apartment, we’d pass by an alleyway that had a sign with the misspelled words “Do not throw any thrash here.” In stark black and white, we’d be captured pogoing and headbanging in front of it. Our proudest moment was a parody of Hole’s “Miss World” written about Dan Quayle running for president. Yes, we were nerds.

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The Smashing Pumpkins, “Rocket” single, released 1 July 1994. This wasn’t my favorite track off Siamese Dream, but this single featured a great b-side that WFNX picked up on: a live-in-studio cover of Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again”. The track would show up a few years later on the For the Masses DM tribute album, but this is where it first appeared.

The Prodigy, Music for the Jilted Generation, released 4 July 1994. A few years before the ubiquitous “Firestarter” song and video, this group was known then for their noisy yet exciting techno that always fired up the dance floor. This was their second album and “Voodoo People” would get minor airplay on WFNX during their weekend techno shows.

Hootie and the Blowfish, Cracked Rear View, released 5 July 1994. I know WFNX wouldn’t dare to touch this band at all, but WBCN played the hell out of them. I’d switch to that station when I was in the mood for more commercial rock stuff, and you couldn’t go an hour without hearing at least one or two tracks from this record. Terrible band name aside, this is actually a pretty decent album!

Des’ree, I Ain’t Movin’, released 5 July 1994. I would hear “You Gotta Be” everywhere I went that summer. And it really is a great track, full of lovely melody and positive and inspiring vibes. I’d also hear it a lot into the next year when I started the movie theater job as part of their in-between movie music.

311, Grassroots, released 12 July 1994. The band’s second album didn’t quite get all the attention it should have, but it did have a minor hit with “Homebrew” which would get play on WNFX and WBCN now and again.

Harry Connick Jr, She, released 12 July 1994. “(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name” was another pop gem that I’d hear everywhere. More known for his jazzy covers of old pop standards, this was an album of fresh new songs for him and was an unexpected success.

Seal, Seal (II), released 19 July 1994. I loved the first album (“Crazy” remains one of my all-time favorite songs of the 90s), but this second record is the one that pushed him further into the mainstream with its many great singles, including “Don’t Cry”, “Prayer for the Dying” and “Kiss from a Rose”, which would be used the following summer in the movie Batman Forever. This remains my favorite album of his and I highly recommend it.

Satchel, EDC, released 26 July 1994. Shawn Smith certainly got around in the 90s and 00s. He formed this band with a coworker from Tower Records, formed the band Brad with Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard soon after, formed Pigeonhed in the late 90s and had a minor hit with the remix of “Battleflag”, and showed up as a guest member on several albums and songs with bands from the Pacific Northwest. This one almost fell under the radar, but I’d heard a track or two from it and eventually found a used copy that I’d play during writing sessions now and again.

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Next up: Summer’s end, making future plans and planning future moves